The regression in the communicative management of the Balance of Performance by FIA and ACO continues. After banning teams from commenting to the press on BoP decisions, this year the organizers have even decided not to publish the parameters imposed on the cars for each event. The justification is the desire to avoid criticism from those who do not have the necessary information, thus compromising the transparency one would expect from a professional sport, as well as from a world championship.
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Secret BoP in 2026
The news was reported by Dailysportscar.com following a meeting in Imola between the press, ACO competition director Bruno Famin, and FIA track competition director Marek Nawarecki. The organizers informed that from this season the Balance of Performance tables will no longer be public domain. Officially, the goal is to avoid criticism from spectators who are unaware of the parameter assignment procedure. Nawarecki and Famin emphasized that the BoP takes into account numerous aspects, including the car homologation data, their actual behavior on track, driving style, chosen trajectories, and even the use of curbs.
Famin explained the decision not to publish the tables as follows: “Because it is super confusing. We do not want to control the narrative, but rather avoid any misunderstanding. It is extremely difficult to understand. People who believe it is all fake and a scam will never change. The parameters we do not publish are the homologation parameters and without those, the BoP values cannot be understood. The starting point and the key to understanding the evolution are missing.”
While on one hand the intention is understandable, after years in which journalistic narratives have excessively attributed sporting results solely to the Balance of Performance values, on the other hand censoring the tables could have the opposite effect and further fuel speculation. Moreover, if the problem truly arose from misinformation, it would have been advisable to strengthen communication and dialogue with the press, for example by making known the BoP calculation procedures, which remain unknown. The biggest victim is transparency towards the public, with FIA and ACO thus avoiding criticism, whether right or wrong, refusing to take responsibility.
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The new BoP parameters
The censorship also comes in a season in which the Balance of Performance is undergoing an evolution. Firstly, the debut of the new Michelin tires influences the representativeness of the data collected on track in 2025, combined with the new homologation of Hypercars in the wind tunnel. FIA and ACO have also chosen to consider new factors for weight assignment.
Each car, for example, will carry ballast to compensate for the difference between the average crew weight and the reference value, set at 78 kg for the race, up to a maximum of 5 kg. For qualifying, a similar process is planned, but the ballast will depend on the weight difference between the lightest driver and the reference value, set in this case at 82 kg. Also in qualifying, each car will be assigned ballast to compensate for the different amount of fuel loaded, thus balancing the consumption of the different engines. FIA and ACO thus welcome proposals made by teams and drivers in recent years, but this is not enough to overshadow the damage caused to transparency by the BoP censorship.
